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 Click on the town or city name below to read a report from that site.
| Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
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On Friday, November 21 our local tellers' group, T.A.L.E.S., gathered
for a fabulous evening of storytelling. Our audience gathered and were
drummed into the theatre at Fort Calgary. We had created a homey,
living-room style setting on the apron of the stage in front of the
curtains. Benches were set at angles to reach into the audience. About
90 people waited in wide-eyed anticipation as the Proclamation was
proclaimed. The first half of the evening delighted us all with four
wonderful, local tellers. Traditional tales, Sufi Tales, and Homespun
Tales were shared. At the end of this set, the audience got a chance
to stretch and to participate in a group telling of "The House that Jack
Built". We then invited the audience to participate in the telling
and if they wished to do so to come see us at the break over apple cider
and cookies. Four children and two adults came forward with the
intention of telling. We worked out the logistics, i.e. time and length
and content . When we all gathered back in the theatre, there were new
faces gathered in the 'living room'. We felt as if we had bridged with
the audience and there was a wonderful flow between performers and
listeners. An elderly gentleman from our group told a long, wonderful,
tale of the remarkable and courageous life of his grandmother, lost and
alone in the bush of northern Canada as a young girl. A first-time in
public teller held us all with her steady, gentle telling. And then,
the children---lively, joyful telling of tales true and spun. The night
ended with a bird story--how it had begun and a group singing of a song
I had penned:
"In every little bud there's a flower to unfold,
In deepest, darkest canyon is where you will find gold,
In the heart of a beginner is courage brave and bold,
In every single person there's a story waiting to be told".
I was thrilled to host and to tell on this magical evening of
Tellabration. We learned a few things and hope to iron out a few
wrinkles for next year's Tellabration. (Issues of boundaries, having a
set format and time, etc. tested the comfort level of some. We did have
a start time and break time but ended up going 15 minutes beyond our
expected 2 hours. Some of us were thrilled to include the audience
while others felt it too risky. The audience, I believe, loved it all.
There was something for everyone. Especially, considering that the
tellers from our group are a fairly homogenous group---we are mostly Caucasian, married, females in our forties. We expanded and stretched
ourselves that evening as we included different genders and
generations.) I encourage other groups to do this and soften the
distinction between performers and audience. Storytelling really is a
part of being human. Let's support and celebrate that. We did so and I
believe this gem of an evening shone even brighter as a result.
I know that we all went home feeling warm, full, and richly blessed on a
cold, dark, November evening in Calgary.
Keith Archer |
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| Mariposa, California |
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[It was memorable] Seeing the growth of one of our new tellers, Mark Goodin. Last year Mark had the audience rolling in the aisles with his story of a young Mark hiding behind a tree at our rural cemetery - and this year, his tales about "the weed/dirt clod wars" and bombing of his childhood friends "enemy" fort evoked delightful laughter, wonderful memories and even tears from his audience.
Another new teller, Terry Burns, a former character actor in Hollywood, told a
delightful tale about his first movie role and how it felt NOT to be one of
"extra's". When I handed out the TELLABRATION certificates at the end of the
event, I briefly told everyone about the memories his tale evoked, when I,
while a student at US, was one of those "extra's" - "$25 dollars a day and that
wonderfully catered food" - movies that occasionally can still be seen on one
of the Antique Movie Channels.
Professional local storyteller and musician, Jimmy Collier, again brought
TELLABRATION to a perfect finale with this stories and music of African
Americans in the West and growing up in the south. His final tale about the
role of "Arts Council spouses" or "the volunteers volunteer" brought a flood of
memories from most of the audience as they recalled their many roles as a
spouse of a volunteer.
Marilyn Rudzik
Mariposa County Arts Council |
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| Hickory, North Carolina |
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The audience did not want to leave, and when they did, approximately half the audience (and Michael) moved to an attendee's home to continue the evening.
Corki Miller |
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| Wellesley, Massachusetts |
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The World of Wellesley Storytelling Festival was the first Tellabration event this year held on Saturday evening, November 14 and kicking off NSA's National Storytelling Week. Over 300 children and adults came to hear 6 enthusiastic tellers regale them with stories from many lands. As Emcee, Bonnie Greenberg, Storyteller, began the evening with "Honeybun" from South Pacific, identified herself as Ensign Greenberg and proceeded to "read the Ship's Log" as she introduced tellers she'd met while sailing around the world on the "Good Ship Wit 'n' Wisdom."
Bringing tellers from far away places, she introduced Barbara Lipke with Martha's Vineyard tales. Next, the audience enjoyed Sandi Hannibal with B'rer Rabbit tales from Africa. George Capaccio brought the Middle Eastern trickster, Hoja, on next, followed by Motoko's Japanese tales. Sharon Kennedy scared many a brave soul with her tales from Ireland and the program ended with a Jewish Egyptian folktale told by Bonnie Greenberg. The entire cast was joined by the audience in singing "We Are All the Waves of One Sea" accompanied by Brian McKee on the piano from the Music Department of the Wellesley Public Schools.
As folks left the auditorium, parents were heard to say, "We should have this type of programming about once a week! It was GREAT!"
This storytelling festival is one of the most popular segments of the week-long celebration of Wellesley's Multicultural Community. Next year, WOW (World of Wellesley) looks forward to aligning with
Tellabration for the second year! Thanks for all your support.
Bonnie Greenberg
Artistic Director, WOW Storytelling Festival |
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| Rio de Janiero, Brazil |
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Had a wonderful time with Livia and Paula in Rio and Buenos Aires.
The storytelling scene in Brazil and Argentina is just incredible. In
Buenos Aires Paula Martin sent me off to a different bar/cafe to hear
tellers
EVERY night! Folks study with a master teller for several years at a time
and each master teller holds court in a particular corner bar at least
once a month showcasing his or her students. All of this for adults.
Lots of literary tellings. Very high quality work by everyone I heard.
And some of the tellers perform weekly at their own cafe venues drawing in
steady audience from the general public at around $10 a head. Paula and
her partner tell in a very animated style for children. I was lucky to
see them in performance. They had been asked to learn and tell the
stories written by several kindergarten classes. What a job. But it came
off very well.
In Rio I got to hang out with Livia de Almeida and her Mil e Umas, which
many Storytell folks got to meet last summer in Kansas City. They are
hoping to come back again this year...and with even more Carioca friends!
There are so MANY dynamite storytelling groups in Rio. It seems that a
while back a storytelling instructor suggested that beginning tellers
needn't wait until they knew a whole program of stories. Just team up
with friends and each tell ONE story. It works. And adds variety to the
programs. Each group also has acquired a musician friend to accompany on
the many cante fables and play intro music for the group. Livia had tons
of these groups working all over Rio on Tellabration weekend. It was
amazing! And being a journalist, she had managed excellent publicity
leading up to the weekend. And storytellers are such enjoyable people to
be around. I enjoyed those four weeks enormously.
Margaret Read MacDonald |
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| Westport, Connecticut |
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My favorite quote of the evening (although I don't know that you can use
this in nationwide publicity) was from a former student of mine, a man
in his early 50's who took my adolescent lit. class last year and
confided to me a few months ago that he had checked himself into a rehab
center for a month during the summer. He marched up the aisle as soon
as we finished singing Goodnight Irene and said, "If I had only known
how much fun 'good clean fun' could be, I would have gotten sober years
ago!"
Another audience member told me he remembered singing Goodnight Irene at
the feet of Huddie Ledbetter himself when he was a student at the Little
Red Schoolhouse in Greenwich Village 60 years ago.
Our program came together beautifully. The stories wove themselves into
a pattern of recurring themes and associations that was quite remarkable
and totally unplanned. Hurray for Tellabration!
Connie Rockman |
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